Breaking Down Will Howard’s Performance in Ohio State’s Dominant Win Over Marshall

In just three quarters plus three plays of work during Ohio State's blowout win over Thundering Herd, Howard continued to improve his efficiency as a passer early on as a Buckeye, becoming more comfortable in OSU's system and gaining more chemistry with his playmakers as he continues to garner snaps behind center in Columbus.

Against the Thundering Herd, Howard completed 16-of-20 passes for 275 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, his first of the season. He improved his completion percentage for a third straight game to begin his Ohio State career. The fifth-year senior's 80% completion rate was the second-best of his career as a starter, behind only his 88.2% clip when he completed 15-of-17 passes for Kansas State against Houston on Nov. 28, 2023.

Like his start in the Buckeyes' last game against Western Michigan two weeks prior, Howard started hot against the Thundering Herd. He completed each of his first four passes and 11 of his first 12 attempts, with the lone incompletion being his first interception of the season. He never threw multiple incompletions in a row over the course of the game.

To take a closer look at how Howard performed in Ohio State's win over Marshall, we charted all 20 of his passing attempts in the game. (Note: The passing chart is categorized by how many yards the quarterback threw the ball in the air past the line of scrimmage on each attempt and whether the ball reached its target inside or outside the hashes, though the stats listed include yards gained after the catch on each completion.)

Ryan Day, Chip Kelly and Howard continued to utilize the play-action and RPO game heavily against Marshall, which Howard has been very good at early on. While there is certainly a difference between play action and RPO, both have been used to Ohio State's advantage so far and will continue to be the rest of the season.

Against Marshall, play action being a favorite of Kelly's playcalling and a part of Howard's game that he excels at were obvious.

Of Howard's 20 throws against the Thundering Herd, 14 of them came off of play action. He completed 11 of 14 (78.6%) of those passes for 234 yards (16.7 yards per attempt), two touchdowns and an interception. Meanwhile, with no play action, Howard completed five of six passes (83.3%) for 41 yards (6.8 yards per attempt). It was Howard's first time as a Buckeye that he threw more passes with play action than not.

Through three games this season, Howard has now completed 30 of 39 passes (76.9%) for 555 yards (14.2 yards per attempt), five touchdowns and an interception with play action (51.3% of dropbacks). Comparatively, he has completed 21 of 35 passes (60%) for 240 yards (6.9 yards per attempt) and a touchdown with no play action (48.7% of dropbacks).

Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson's dominance in the rushing game has certainly played a part in Howard having so much success in the play-action game, but the opposite can be said as well.

Whether it was part of the game plan or just the fact that Howard was taking advantage of what Marshall was giving him, the 6-foot-4, 235-pounder took advantage of the Thundering Herd's soft coverage on the outside. After attempting 11 passes behind the line of scrimmage the first two games of the season, Howard completed all eight of his passes in that area of the field for 109 yards and a touchdown, including a 68-yard catch-and-run by Emeka Egbuka. The type of throws where Howard just gets the ball outside to OSU's elite group of wideouts and allows them to make plays as much as possible.

"I think my two touchdown passes were a screen and a slam today, and they were both for over 45 to 68 yards," Howard said of his short passes leading to long touchdowns. "It's awesome when I can just let those guys go get the YAC and do the rest. Again, it makes my job easy."

He also excelled on throws from 0-9 yards (six of nine, 111 yards and a touchdown) and 10-19 yards beyond the line of scrimmage (three of three, 55 yards) against Marshall, much like he did the first two games of the season.

That said, he continued to struggle throwing the ball 20-plus yards, throwing an interception in his only attempt. He has also not attempted a pass between the hashes more than 20 yards downfield this season.

Even with that, Howard still has a better completion percentage on deep throws this season than he had at Kansas State last season, while his completion rate on throws within nine yards of the line of scrimmage is lower so far.

Howard completed 5-of-6 passes for 162 yards and two touchdowns when the Thundering Herd blitzed and 16-of-19 passes for 275 yards, two touchdowns and an interception when the pocket was clean. His only pass under pressure fell incomplete, however, and he has now completed just 1-of-9 passes for eight yards under pressure this season.

In yet another blowout win early this season, Devin Brown received some late-game snaps for a third consecutive game for Ohio State, completing two of six passes for 14 yards.

Below, we take a look at two throws that Howard would love to have back. While he completed 80% of his passes, there were no real highlight-reel attempts as his two touchdowns both came with long runs after the catch by Egbuka and Jeremiah Smith.

Bad Throw: Will Howard's First Interception of Season

While it’s hard to dispute the logic behind throwing a deep ball to Smith in one-on-one coverage, Howard underthrew this pass on Smith’s inside shoulder rather than leading Smith on his outside shoulder, allowing Marshall cornerback Josh Moten to intercept the ball.

PICKED OFF

The @HerdFB defense with a HUGE play pic.twitter.com/u063bGSC8S

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Howard said he had no regrets about making that throw, though, and that it was something he could learn from going forward.

"No, looking back at that play I probably wouldn't have looked at it. Sometimes things happen and I think looking at it, the boundary was clouded, so I couldn't go to the boundary, you're max protected," Howard said of his first interception of the season. "So I had three routes, so it was either that or my vertical wrap and my vertical wrap was covered. That was really the only option I had and the plan all week was to let that thing rip and put it on the spot. I'm going to trust number No. 4 every day of the week and he's going to go make that play.

"Sometimes things happen and it's football and you know what, we had to come back and bounce back and you know what, it's part of the game and it's about how you respond," he continued. "I think we responded really well and no one batted an eye tonight. We just went back to work and kept going."

Bad Throw: Will Howard Misses Wide-Open Jelani Thurman

Nit-picking here again, considering Howard had only four incompletions against Marshall, but the quarterback likely wants this one back. Luckily, it was only an incomplete pass and nothing worse, but missing a wide-open target is never good.

Not only has Howard been an efficient passer, but he has also used his legs to either extend plays or create plays of his own downfield. He has two rushing touchdowns this season, including one in each of Ohio State's last two games.

Will Howard takes it himself @OhioStateFB takes the lead in Columbus

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— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 21, 2024

"In the run game, me getting my legs going, all these different things present challenges for defenses," Howard said of his dual-threat ability. "The more ways we can attack them and the more people we can get involved, the harder it's going to be for (the defense)."

Howard's passing chart through three games in the 2024 season: